Glass Half Emptied
by Roses of Sharon
Summary: Because flowers are made for killing, and Ino knows this all too well. SasuSakuish. And Ino, because Ino has eyes made for seeing.


Because flowers are made for dying,

Summary: Because flowers are made for killing, and Ino knows this all too well. SasuSakuish. And Ino, because Ino has always been able to see.

Disclaimer: I do not own _Naruto_.

Glass Half Emptied

Because flowers are made for dying, made for plucking, made for killing.

And you know this all too well, for this is your job. Not your main job, for that is _kunoichi, _where you kill not flowers but weeds; but it is your second, where you kill _flowers_, for their beauty, before they have had a chance to live.

(But weeds, you think, sometimes. Weeds have a home, too. Weeds have a place where they, too, are nurtured and encouraged, where they are needed and wanted and you think that it is a waste, a damn fine waste… and then you wonder if you are even talking about botany, anymore. Or if you ever were.)

You kill the flowers, and you freeze them. You freeze them and you keep them and you arrange them, and they are beautiful. But dead.

And, once in a while, you wish your best friend had… Had any name other than the one she has. Any. (Though probably not _Iris_, or _Lily_, or _Rose_.)

Because he is breaking her, crushing her, killing her.

And it shatters your heart to see it, and you feel like crying, like shedding tears, as you never have for any other flower. (You wonder if the flowers cry, when their mates are taken… You wonder if flowers even remember.)

And you watch them walk in front of your shop, and you think of wailing. _It wasn't her fault_, you think of saying to him, and something about it not being her fault. But of course you don't.

Because she wouldn't want you to. She thinks that she still has a choice, that she still has a chance. And maybe she's right, maybe she does - still have a chance, that it. Maybe he'll still turn around and laugh with her, still turn around and smile at her, and _stop walking away_.

But he has a penchant for walking away, for turning his back and stomping on the flowers that he does not look down to see. And he does not hear their anguished cries, does not see their life's blood pour out even as he crushes their frail petals.

You know how to treat flowers: gently and firmly, cut them to make them grow. It is difficult, more difficult then people believe, and you don't think that Sasuke can manage it. Because most of all, flowers require love and lots of weeding, lots of protecting.

And you think that he can protect her all he wants, he can't give her the love that she needs. She is dying, dying of thirst in a parched land where the earth is cracked and bitter, and dust flies in her eyes and blinds her, flies in her mouth and chokes her, flies in her ears and deafens her.

_She dies_.

Maybe she'll die alone - you hope not - maybe she will die surrounded by friends - you don't know if you can stand this - and maybe she'll die surrounded by _him_.

You don't think he deserves that. You don't think he deserves to see her die for him, to see her love him every moment that he kills her. You don't think he deserves to know the meaning of _everlasting love_, and you don't think that he will recognize it when it comes.

But she wants to - wants to dream, wants to hope. And you are her best friend, so you want to slap her silly and make her wake up and see the _real world_, the real, harsh world that you live in, where things just don't happen that way.

But she insists on dreaming, on moving on in fairy-tale make-believe, and you don't have the heart to stop her. Because what does she have, if she can't have her dreams? _Me_, you wail into the silence.

But you're not enough, and you know this - you will never be enough, and Naruto isn't enough, and Tenten and Hinata and Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-sama are not enough, but Sasuke-kun is. Sasuke and his magnificent (_dripping in blood_) dream, his great (_terrible_) goal, and she will follow him to the ends of the earth.

Because she believes, no matter how she professes her faith in Naruto, no matter her friendships and loyalties that bind her to Konoha.

Maybe she will never follow him physically, but her spirit will always be with him.

And you don't think she deserves that.

You don't think _he_ does.


End file.
